Dispensationalism and the Doctrine of Election
Refutation of Calvinism, Arminianism, and Covenant Theology
Chapter Two
From the Foundation of the
World
Where
do we go to begin to understand God’s “eternal purpose” (Eph.
3:11) in the doctrine of Election from the
Word of God. Undoubtedly
we must begin at the beginning. However, as we understand the Word of God inductively, we
see that God has an eternal
Plan “in Christ” that
begins before His original creation. This
Plan is “according to
foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23 and I Peter 1:2) and involves the
incarnation
of the Son
of God into humanity through birth as a human.
However, this incarnation also involved the
substitutionary (vicarious) death of the Promised One in order
to fulfill an all encompassing “eternal purpose.”
The difficulty is in planning for the unknown and for uncontrollable events. There are some things that the greatest architect cannot plan for because there are some things he just cannot foresee nor do anything about. These are things outside of the scope of his knowledge or control. There are some possible catastrophic events where, even if their possibility can be foreseen, nothing can be done to circumvent the destruction the events might cause. To plan for these things would require perfect foreknowledge of all future events, perfect knowledge of all building materials, absolute power to intervene in the case of any catastrophe, and constant watch with the capabilities for immediate intervention. In other words, this would require an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent Architect.
These qualities can never be found in human architects, but they can be found in the great Master Builder and Creator of Genesis 1:1. In those early verses of Genesis, He calls Himself Elohiym (El-o-heem'). Before He ever laid the “foundations of the world,” He foreknew every single event that would happen and planned for His intervention in history to insure the fulfillment of His “eternal purpose.”
The three portions of Scripture we refer to below reveal to us that before the Master Builder created the time, space, matter continuum, the heavens, the earth and all that is contained therein, He foreknew every detail and every future event that would take place in the time, space, matter continuum that we know as the original Genesis (Beginning or Creation). He not only foreknew and planned for every detail and event of the future, He planned for every future catastrophic event as well. This existence of this Plan is revealed to us by the words “before the foundation of the world.”
“18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I Peter 1:18-23).
"3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6).
As a believer begins to understand the Word of God inductively
through the exegesis of individual Bible texts, he will begin to
see that God has a Plan
that begins “before the foundation of the world” that brings the
focus of all prophetic history upon the metaphor of a “slain”
Lamb looking forward in the unfolding of prophetic history to
all that this Promised One would do as He enters into time from
eternity. As the
believer follows this
Plan from the beginning of time in the original creation, he
incrementally discovers that within God’s overall
Plan there are
actually seven new beginnings (Geneses,
or historical paradigms) where God essentially
starts over with a
new remnant. These seven
historical paradigms (Geneses)
have come to be known as
Dispensations. The
individuals who rightly divide the Word of Truth (II Tim. 2:15),
and see these seven dispensations, have come to be known as
Dispensationalists.
See PDF Dispensational Chart.)
Systematic Theology is a collection of conclusive statements of beliefs arrived at by determining what God says about a given subject in His Word as these beliefs are substantiated by the clarity and weight of the statements God has made about these subjects. The clearer the statement and the number of times the subject is dealt with add to the weight of support for the theological conclusion. The careful examination and interpretation of various Bible verses and books according to principles of Hermeneutics is known as Biblical exegesis.
The gathering of all data about a certain theological subject and putting all those evidences from exegesis together for weight of support is known as an inductive methodology. The more exhaustive the study and the greater the weight of support (Biblical conclusive evidence) provided for any given theological statement, the more that statement can be considered and accepted as dogmatic. This is the work of the theologian. Through an inductive methodology of Bible study and exegesis, he gathers all conclusive statements about a given subject and formulates the weight of those conclusive statements into a dogmatic and systematize theology arranged in various categories.
There are twelve main categories of theology found in
most Systematic Theologies.
They are:
Under each of these main categories of theology, we will
find a wide diversity of sub-categories.
These can be very exhaustive and detailed expanding to
hundreds of pages and numerous volumes.
I personally have numerous Systematic Theologies of
various theologians comprising hundreds of volumes in my own
theological library.
These many Systematic Theologies can be divided into
types based upon two main views of
prophetic history1
or what some refer to as
philosophies of history.
These two views of
prophetic history are known as Covenant Theology and
Dispensational Theology.
These two views of
prophetic history will determine and result in two radically
different world views.
Covenant Theology results in a
utopian end time
world view with the Church ushering in a
utopian Kingdom on
earth (Amillennialism).
Dispensationalism results in a
cataclysmic end time
world view with the complete dissolution of the original
creation and a New
Genesis created by God where God will live with His Redeemed
for all eternity after restoring dominion to mankind “in Christ”
during a 1,000 year reign of Christ on Earth (Millennialism).
Of course, there are as many variations within these two
systems of theology
as there are theologians.
Dispensational Theology is the result of Biblical
exegesis and a
single Hermeneutic
(as defined in Chapter One).
Covenant Theology is the result of a double Hermeneutic
and is therefore
eisegetical.
“Covenant
Theology recognizes that the historical grammatical method of
interpreting the Bible is normal. . . In spite of these
recognitions, Covenant Theology frequently employs the
allegorical or spiritualizing method.
In this method words are not given the common, ordinary
meaning which they had in the culture and time in which the
passage was written.
Instead, they are assigned different meanings.
For example, according to this method, the word
II. HERMENEUTICS: THE DOCTRINE OF INTERPRETATION
III. THEOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF GOD
IV. CHRISTOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF THE SON OF GOD
V. PNEUMATOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
VI. ANTHROPOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF MAN
VII. HARMARTIOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF SIN
VIII. SOTERIOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION
IX. ECCLESIOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH
X. ESCHATOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF PROPHECY
XI. ANGELOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF ANGELS
XII. PRACTICAL THEOLOGY
Suppositions of Truth are arrived at by, or more
properly derived from, the method of deductive logic. The
Supposition is derived by proposing a Major Premise, then one or
more Minor Premises from which a Conclusion (Supposition) is
derived. Here is an example used by Crenshaw4:
“. . .As we survey, consider
the following logic:
Christ’s death inherently saves.
If Christ died for all, then all are saved.
Not all are saved.
Therefore, Christ did not die for all.”
If the Major Premise and the Minor Premises are true, then the Conclusion must be true as well. This is Aristotelian Syllogism. Of course in the above example, the Major Premise is wrong. Although salvation is inherent in Christ’s death, His death does not inherently save everyone. A person must exercise faith to be saved. The first Minor Premise is also wrong; “If Christ died for all, then all are saved.” Again, only those exercising faith are saved. The second Minor Premise is correct. However, because the Major Premise and the first Minor Premise are wrong, the Conclusion (Supposition) is wrong. Yet, the Supposition that “Christ did not die for all” is imposed upon every Scripture text where it is clearly stated that He did die for all. Therefore, these Suppositions imposed upon the interpretation of the Word of God form another Hermeneutic that is based upon derived facts.
These Suppositions (derived facts) are really the basis of much of what is commonly mistaken for allegory. The imposition of these Suppositions on the interpretation of Bible texts is not Biblical exegesis. This is eisegesis. Therefore, neither is the methodology Sola Scriptura and no one employing the methodology of Aristotelian Syllogism can honestly say they are Sola Scriptura. They may claim to be, but they cannot do so honestly.
The primary Supposition imposed upon the interpretation of the Word of God is that the word Election means God has chosen certain individuals to be saved and is working in a special or particular way in their salvation while relegating the rest of hopelessly depraved and helpless humanity to the realm of their deserved condemnation. The substance of these studies is to show from Scripture that this Supposition is false.
An inductive methodology (reasoning from the parts to the whole or from particular, individual Truths found in careful exegesis of a wide and diverse number of Bible texts to Universal conclusions resulting in dogmatic Truths) is a much more dependable methodology for building a Systematic Theology that is truly Sola Scriptura.
Another important issue regarding the development of theological thought and proper Biblical exegesis is understanding the issue of Progressive Revelation. The Word of God did not drop out of the sky in its present state of existence as 66 complete books carefully organized into chapters and verses on clean, crisp India paper bound in leather. This revelation from God we call the Holy Bible came to us in bits and pieces down through the centuries as God spoke or revealed to many different individuals His inspired Words and they recorded them in written form.
As prophetic and foreknown history unfolds chronologically, the Plan of God progressively becomes more and more evident due to increased and new revelation. There are some things that Bible students with all the New Testament books can fully understand that would have been unclear and even mysterious to believers who only had the Old Testament books of the Bible.
Dispensationalism is Truth that develops in the historically progressive unfolding of Biblical revelation. The seven dispensations (Geneses) unfold throughout Scripture like a scroll of revelation from the beginning of time to the end of time when God finally destroys the original creation in wrath and creates a final and eternal New Genesis that He will share with the Redeemed from throughout history. The Word of God refers to this final act of creation as a New Heaven and a New Earth. God’s seven New Beginnings (Dispensations) throughout time reveal God’s unfolding Plan to the final and eternal New Genesis (“the regeneration”). This Plan was already in place before God ever laid the foundations of the original creation (“before the foundation of the world”) “in Christ” (the Promised One).
Many Covenant Theologians declare that Dispensationalism has no mention in Scripture and is merely a modern day theological invention. The fact is that the Greek word, or a derivative of the Greek word, oikonomia (oy-kon-om-ee'-ah) “is found in various forms some twenty times in the New testament.5” It simply refers to the administration or stewardship of a household or estate.
Of course, the estate is God’s dominion. Dispensationalism is the developing and progressive revelation of God’s administration of His New Genesis “in Christ” through the lineage of a remnant of descendants chosen by Him until the coming of the Promised One Who would then restore the lost dominion of the original creation and establish a new dominion in a New Creation after the consummation of time and the dissolution of the original creation.
Each new dispensation begins with a new remnant and different principles for the stewardship of Truth and faith within that period of time. Dispensationalism is primarily about this stewardship of Truth intent upon maintaining a faithful remnant of believers who are responsible for maintaining, preserving, and contending for revealed Truth against the deceiving and corrupting influences of the seed of Satan in fallen humanity and passing those Truths on from generation to generation. Dispensationalism is the history of the failure in the majority of professing believers in this stewardship and the success of a constantly reducing minority toward the end of each dispensation. As each dispensation draws to a close, the remnant of faithful stewards diminishes to a very small minority. For instance, as in the case of Noah, the faithful remnant had come to nothing more than one family of eight souls.
Since the fall of Satan, the world has had an enemy intent upon opposing the divine order that God established in His original creation. After the fall into sin and the curse, humanity was divided by God into two seeds and descendants from those two seeds. These two seed lineages would war against each other until the end of time and the Great White Throne Judgment. God cursed the seed lineage from Satan (unbelief) and promised His eternal blessings upon the Seed lineage (believers) from the Promised One (Messiah).
Since Satan had already declared war upon God’s dominion decree of God in giving dominion of His creation to Adam and Adam’s descendants, when Adam chose to disobey God, he relinquished the dominion of the original creation to Satan. From that point forward in time, the world was divided into these two factions. Sin caused/created the division, but God’s righteousness brought condemnation (the curse) upon sin and the original creation putting the “enmity” between the two seed lineages.
“14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent {Satan in the serpent}, Because thou hast done this {deceived Eve and taken dominion of the first creation away from Adam}, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15 And I will put enmity {hateful hostility; i.e. war} between thee {Satan in the the serpent} and the woman, and between thy seed {Satan in the the serpent} and her seed {the Promised One}; it {enmity, the warfare} shall bruise {break or crush; referring to a fatal blow} thy {Satan in the serpent} head {rule or dominion}, and thou {Satan in the serpent} shalt bruise his {the Promised One} heel {that instrument that would crush the “head” of the serpent or Satan’s dominion; i.e, the death, burial, and resurrection of the Promised One}” (Genesis 3:14-15).
Therefore, before we begin to see the development of the doctrine of Election in the Word of God, let me establish a Scriptural overview. I will expand upon this overview in considerable detail in the following chapters. However, we will see that the following paragraph summary is essentially the doctrine of Election in a proverbial nutshell. Although this all may appear to be complicated, it is really quite simple.
The Promised One of Genesis 3:15 is God’s Son, chosen (elected) from the “foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8) to be both the Redeemer of the lost and both a new and “last Adam” (actually both the “first and the last” in that He was part of God’s Plan before the creation of Adam, Rev. 1:17-18; I Cor. 15:45-50) to restore the dominion relinquished to Satan by Adam’s sinful choice. The Promised One (the “last Adam”) would be successful where the first Adam failed. The Promised One would be the “firstborn” (Romans 8:29; Col. 1:15-18) of a New Genesis (Matthew 19:28) and would become the “door” (John 10:1-9) into this New Genesis to “whosoever” of fallen humanity willing to believe in His death, burial, and resurrection, repent of sin, confess Him as LORD, call on Him to save them, and be supernaturally “born again” (John 3:3-7, I Peter 1:23) “by grace through faith” (Eph. 2:8-9) into the New Genesis “in Christ” (I Cor. 12:12-13; Christ now having primogeniture that provides inheritance of glorification into the New Genesis; Acts 26:18, Eph. 1:11-18, Col. 1:12, 3:24 and, I Peter 1:2-5). Therefore, this whole group that would become the descendants of the Seed of the Promised One “through faith” (Eph. 2:8-9) would become the elect “in Christ” (Eph. 1:3-4, II Tim. 1:9). Although election does not always translate into the salvation of the individual or group elected, the primary and “eternal purpose” of God in election is a continuing and ongoing faithful remnant for the stewardship and preservation of Truth to His glory to the end of time.
As we look at the Protevangelum of Genesis 3:15, it is important to see that the primary focus of this first mention of the gospel has more to do with the restoration of dominion to mankind through the birth of the Promised One (Rev. 4:9-5:7) than it has to do with the salvation of lost souls. The salvation of lost souls is a secondary issue that is the outcome of the crushing of Satan’s “head” (the dominion of death he imprisons mankind with; I Cor. 15:54-55; Heb. 2:15). The primary purpose of the coming of the Promised One has to do with restoring mankind’s ability to glorify God through the regeneration of lost souls “by grace through faith.” This is God’s “eternal purpose” in “the regeneration.”
Satan does not want this “eternal purpose” to be accomplished. He opposes the restoration of dominion “in Christ.” Therefore, Antichristism (as a movement) is anything that opposes the divine order of God by seeking to distort the glory (Image) of God in which man was created, pervert the Word of God revealing God in all of His attributes in glory, or anyone that lives contrary to the commands of God. The Antichrist has always been the same individual since the fall of Satan. He has been the leader of the Antichrist movement throughout history. Antichristism is the ongoing lineage of the seed of the serpent down through the Dispensations (Ages or historical paradigms) of time. This seed of the serpent (manifested in the lives of unbelievers) opposes the stewardship and preservation of Truth by the remnant of God’s chosen faithful.
What this all means to us is that there were (and are) no surprises to God. When Lucifer of his own will rebelled against God’s sovereignty in giving dominion (Federal Headship) of His Genesis to Adam, God was not surprised. God was not surprised by Eve’s deception or Adam’s willful, selfish choice to follow his wife’s leadership rather than God’s command. In other words, we do not find God looking over the catastrophe of His fallen creation and saying, “Oh, I never anticipated that happening!” God foreknew these events “before the foundation of the world” and instituted a plan for the recovery of every lost soul that would ever be procreated through God’s planned continuum to populate the Earth. God planned for a New Genesis with a new Federal Head. The New Genesis is what the Scriptures refer to as “the regeneration.” This New Genesis is “in Christ,” the Promised One referred to as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
The reason why it is so important to understand that this New Genesis was already in place in the plan of God prior to the details of the original Genesis of Genesis chapters one and two has to do with God’s sovereignty over His creation and the issue of primogeniture. The original Genesis was doomed to condemnation and destruction in the plan of God “before the foundation of the world.” God foreknew that. The New Genesis is not a restoration of the fallen Genesis. The original, and now fallen, Genesis will be completely destroyed.
“9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (II Peter 3:9-13).
The New Genesis will be a
completely new Creation.
This New Genesis
begins with the plan of God in the eternal Son of God becoming a
man. Jesus is the
Promised One of Genesis 3:15 and the Federal Head of the New
Genesis having already won victory over Satan’s stolen dominion
of the original creation when He died on
[1] Renald E. Showers, There Really is a Difference (A
Comparison of Covenant and Dispensational Theology), The Friends
of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc., Bellmawr, NJ
[2] Ibid, page 24
[3] Aristotle, Prior Analytics I.2, 24b18-20,
[4] Curtis I Crenshaw, quoted in A.A. Hodge, The Atonement,
Appendix 4
[5] Mal Couch, General Editor, An Introduction to Classical
Evangelical Hermeneutics (A Guide to the History and Practice of
Biblical Interpretation), Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids, MI,
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